Standing before a sign displaying the province’s $272.8-billion debt, the federation’s Ontario director Candice Malcolm on Monday urged radical cuts to balance the books this year.

“We’re paying for a decade of McGuinty and Wynne mismanagement,” said Malcolm, referring to the premier and her predecessor Dalton McGuinty’s expansion of government programs.

“Their motives were clear: they were looking after their own self-interest and not the interest of taxpayers. We cannot continue down this road of deficits, debt and insolvency,” she said at Queen’s Park.

In a budget submission to Finance Minister Charles Sousa, the right-wing lobby group called for dramatic — and politically unpalatable — changes to the way business is done at Queen’s Park. These include:

selling the Liquor Control Board of Ontario booze monopoly and following Alberta’s model in moving to privatization.

ending the $1-billion a year Ontario Clean Energy Benefit, a 10 per cent rebate on homeowners’ hydro bills.

cancelling the $1.5-billion full-day kindergarten program that will be fully implemented across Ontario by September.

scrapping “corporate welfare,” such as the investments Ontario has made to companies including Cisco Systems in order to attract jobs, which could save $2.7 billion annually.

axing the 30 per cent tuition credit for most students attending universities and colleges.

freezing the wages of more than 1.2 million people in the broader public sector, such as teachers, doctors, nurses, police officer, firefighters, and bureaucrats, in order to save $2 billion a year.

clamping down on contraband tobacco by lowering taxes on cigarettes to discourage smuggling.

The taxpayers federation’s proposals are far more dramatic than anything suggested by the major political parties.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has urged cuts to balance the budget by 2016-17 while Wynne and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath have said it can be done by 2017-18 without major upheaval.

Malcolm said her organization did not know how many jobs would be lost if its plans, which would save some $13 billion this year, were implemented.

“When you’re talking about job losses on the government side, presumably you could talk about the new jobs that are created on the private-sector side,” she said.

“We haven’t done the calculations but I imagine if the government actually followed our plan, the opportunities that would come from investment on the free-market side would be greater than the job losses.”

Sousa, for his part, rejected the CTF’s suggestions, warning some would “sacrifice the future of our kids.”

“Some of the recommendations — across the board cuts — would hamper our economic recovery and put at risk the very things that we value,” the finance minister said at prebudget consultations at a Church St. community centre.

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